Author: Jessica Roberts Martin

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Student Involvement and Leadership will be hosting the Holobaugh Honors Ceremony at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall. The Holobaugh Honors recognize individuals who: live and lead with integrity; engage diverse communities on issues relevant to the LGBT equality; perform direct advocacy and service to the St. Louis metro community; and incorporate education and dialogue as part of their practice. Nomination forms are online: https://getinvolved.wustl.edu/LGBT/programs_and_events/Pages/Holobaugh-Nomination-Form.aspx

Chelsea Clinton announced during the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York on Sept. 25 that Washington University in St. Louis will serve as the host of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), April 5-7, 2013, on the Danforth Campus.  President Bill Clinton launched CGI U in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world. Each year, CGI U hosts a meeting where students, youth organizations, topic experts, and celebrities discuss solutions to pressing global issues.

Workers pour sweat, blood and even dollars into the firms that employ them, especially in a labor market characterized by employment and retirement insecurity, says Marion Crain, JD, expert on labor and employment law and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Work can shape one’s life in ways that run to the core of identity,” she says. “Work law, however, ignores these realities of interdependence and mutual investment, committing itself to a model of employment as an arm’s length, impersonal cash-for-labor transaction.” Crain suggests looking at other legal models such as marriage law to more accurately respond to the realities of the employment relationship, particularly at termination. 

Nominations are due Oct. 19 for the fifth annual James M. Holobaugh Honors. LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Student Involvement and Leadership will be hosting the Holobaugh Honors Ceremony at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, in Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall.

The Public Interest Law and Policy Speakers Series continues Thursday, Sept. 20, with Goodwin Liu, associate justice of the Supreme Court of California, on “Federal Law in State Court: Handling Conflicts over Arbitration, Immigration, and Constitutional Rights” at noon in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom (Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 310). The 2012-13 series features judges, lawyers, authors and academics with expertise in public interest law and policy. For a full list of the 2012-13 speakers visit http://law.wustl.edu/pilss/.

Britain’s royal family has obtained an injunction against the French magazine Closer to prevent it from publishing topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton. “The case would likely come out differently if it were brought in the United States,” says Neil Richards, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Richards, an internationally recognized expert in privacy and free speech law who hails from England, explains that English and European courts have been very aggressive in stopping media from publishing pictures delving into the sex lives of celebrities.

The “No More ‘Too Big to Fail’” rallying cry is unrealistic, says Cheryl Block, JD, federal taxation, budget and bailout expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “When the next really big economic crisis arises, Congress is unlikely to stick to its ‘no bailout’ pledge,” she says.

Faculty and graduate students from St. Louis-area universities with an interest in labor, households, health care, law and social welfare are invited to take part in a series of Monday brown-bag luncheon seminars to be held biweekly on the Danforth Campus at Washington University in St. Louis beginning Monday, Sept. 10, through Monday, Dec. 3.

According to the New York Times, Penguin will publish first-person account of the bin Laden raid written by a Navy SEAL. Kathleen Clark, JD, national security law expert and professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, discusses the process for publishing this type of book.

Karen Tokarz, JD, dispute resolution expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that criticisms about foreclosure mediation programs – currently under review across the country – are not supported by research and appear to be based on misunderstandings of the process.